Bernard Baudry: The Red Cuvées
Here I continue my exploration of the Baudry portfolio, now looking at the red wines. It makes sense to begin with the limestone cuvées first, these being the best wines and those most suited to the cellar, before I progress onto the other wines, from gravel and other alluvial terroirs.
I will begin with La Croix Boissée, not only because it is the flagship cuvée, first among equals so to speak, but also because – despite its status – it is usually picked first, simply because the south-facing slope has such a huge and beneficial effect on ripening. One recent exception to this rule was the 2015 vintage, when these vines were picked later (although not last), because there was some rain during the season which Matthieu felt had retarded ripening. Thus in 2015 they picked Les Granges and Les Grézeaux first, followed by Le Clos Guillot and La Croix Boissée. But otherwise the team here lead with La Croix Boissée.
The fruit is handled as described on the previous pages, being vinified in wooden cuves, the cap held submerged, the extraction aided by a little remontage. The maceration will typically last as long as 20 days, after which the wine is run off and the solids pressed, these embryonic wines then going into barrels aged between two and five years (sometimes older, perhaps as many as ten years) for up to 24 months. After this the wine comes back into concrete cuve for a period en masse, after which it will be bottled, typically about three years after the harvest.
